Page 3879 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 2011
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MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, I will just point out that in three minutes we will have to cease this debate.
MR SMYTH: We can always suspend standing orders and continue the debate. It is an important issue.
Ms Gallagher: No, we have got important work to get to. Let us move it on.
MR SMYTH: So it is not an important issue?
Ms Gallagher: Well, you have got your time allotted for it, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Okay, so we are going to gag debate on a very important election issue—a very important education issue? Fantastic.
Mr Barr: Election issue? Right.
MR SMYTH: It may become a very important election issue. Given your record on school closures, it may well become a very important election issue.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, do you want to add to this debate?
MR SMYTH: Madam Deputy Speaker, it is interesting that the Greens say it is too early and it is pre-emptive to have this debate in an Assembly committee. It is too early, and pre-emptive to have a committee involved to make sure that we get it right. But surely it is better to guide the process than to be joined at the end of the process when the government has its bill, when the government has made all its decisions, when the government is putting in place what it wants. Surely it is better to start early and get it right?
I thought the Greens were keen on the preventative principle and that you got there early so that you did not make mistakes. Clearly not. Clearly the Greens are not interested in being third-party insurance, because if you want to get into the game right at the very end and say, “This is what’s wrong with the bill,” or, “This is what’s right with the bill,” you have missed the point. The point is to look at the principle of whether the two organisations should be joined.
I think it is entirely appropriate that we have the involvement of the Assembly at a very early stage in a very important issue for the future of this city. If the minister is correct, if the case is as clear as he puts and is as strong as he says it is, if it is as overwhelming as stated, then surely that case will stand on the evidence. If you are afraid it will not withstand the scrutiny, then do not vote for this motion from Mr Doszpot today, because that is what you are saying—that we will not send this for scrutiny—and I think that is most unfortunate.
We know about the minister and consultation; we know about consultation when this minister does educational reform. His idea is to put educational reform on the table as a fait accompli and then go and ask for your opinion on how he can tweak it. We know what that led to—23 school closures. We know the Greens’ role in that, because
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